To that end, she keeps prices low, including a 15-item menu of lunch specials for $4.50.

Her regular customers’ comfort in the strip-mall cafe showed: One man grabbed his own bottle of water out of the cooler while waiting for a to-go order. Another group was greeted with Meksavanh’s wide smile when she noticed they had arrived.

“We have never, ever, ever had bad food here,” said Irene Jackson, who has been eating at the neighborhood restaurant since it opened.